—–Coming to college has been a very difficult yet exciting experience for me. As the semester begins one thing that I am most excited about is being able to take classes I was able to choose for myself. I have noticed that I am more excited to attend my classes and learn the material than I was in high school when I did not have as much academic freedom. Something that I think will be a challenge for me is branching out and making new friends. I tend to stay quiet and not make many connections which is something that I want to work on throughout the year. One way I have been able to work towards this goal so far is through my job with Housing and Residence Life. I am currently working as a desk receptionist in Owens House. This job requires that I work roughly 16 hours a week. One of the ways I plan to balance my professional and academic responsibilities is maintaining an organized schedule so that I am able to stay ahead on my work. Thankfully, I have experience with a busy schedule because I was active in a number of clubs in high school. Student government association was the club that I devoted most of my time to. However, I also participated in National Honor Society and Fellowship of Christian Athletes as I was a member of the tennis team. I enjoy being in clubs because it provides me with a sense of community that allows me to feel supported. With that being said I hope to join the Pre-Health Club here on campus. I think joining the Pre-Health Club will allow me to network with other students at the university with similar aspirations as myself. 

—–I am an intended public health major because experiencing a global pandemic has definitely made me appreciate this field of study and all of the good it does. After graduation I plan to attend an accredited Physician Assistant program. I chose to follow this career path because I love working with a team and believe that my leadership skills will allow myself and my teammates to succeed. I do not have any experience within my chosen field right now, but I plan to spend time shadowing healthcare professionals to ensure I chose the right career for me before attending a Physician Assistant program. If I decide to pursue my masters in physician assisting then I will most likely take a gap year to gain patient care experience before applying.

—–Since finishing my first week of classes in college one of the biggest differences from high school is that I am responsible for teaching myself a lot of the course material. This is something that I did not have to worry about in high school. With that being said I think that aspect of learning in college is what makes it so much harder. For instance, I do not have significantly more assignments than I did in high school, but I do have to spend a lot more time within each course to make sure I understand what I am going to be tested on. That is the difference between homework and studying in my opinion. This semester I am taking biology 121, chemistry 105, statistics 130, health professions 101, art history 127, and biology laboratory 122. For each of these courses besides biology lab 122 and health professions 101 I plan to spend 2-3 hours studying a week. Typically I study in the library because it is quiet and I can be away from my room. One of the distractions I typically struggle with is getting on my phone often, which allows me to get distracted and waste a lot of time. To stop this from happening I have gotten into the habit of setting a one hour timer for work followed by a 10 minute break. I usually study in the morning before class to prepare myself for the day and then again after I have eaten dinner or had some time to relax after class. I like studying during these times because it does not make me feel like I am doing too much work at once. When studying I like to make flashcards and add to my notes from the professor’s PowerPoint if it has been posted on blackboard. That kind of repetition helps me retain the information in my notes.